Big Willie

I’m sure the fans would have taken ten years of being average if they won the CL.

If you give me the CL this season, I will sign for us to be shit for the next ten years.

      Clrnc look at the post right above the one you quoted.

      Sicario2 - Tier 1 He also won a CL with Porto with minimal spending. Something Pep could never do.

      Big Willie During a season which it later transpired that they were bribing officials and docked points. They were also subsequently banned from the CL in the 2008 season albeit before winning an appeal which allowed them back in.

      If they did it in the Super Liga in 03/04, it wouldn't be outlandish to think they did it on their way to the CL in that same exact season.

            Big Willie
            Considering we’ve never ever won it I don’t think so. Beggars can’t be choosers.

            Winning the CL would also mean no rival fan can chat shit about us again.

              Clrnc the most cheaty on field team I've ever witnessed. Take everything terrible about your average Portugese team when it comes to time wasting, diving, feigning injury, sneaky dirty fouls, etc Add in everything you ever hated about how Jose teams play. Then multiply it by 10. That was that Porto team.

                  Sicario2 - Tier 1 He also won a CL with Porto with minimal spending. Something Pep could never do.

                  I'll die on this hill but while Mourinho's achievements for Porto were great they were also overrated. They beat Lyon in the QF, an erratic Deportivo in the SF & Monaco in the final to win the CL. They couldn't beat R.Madrid home or away that season in the group stages and snuck past Man Utd. One of my biggest regrets is that game against Chelsea where after 60 mins our team basically ran out of gas, we would have walked that CL.

                  Maybe Pep couldn't do that but with money to spend Pep took his teams to levels Mourinho could never reach. Mourinho at Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid spent a fuck load of money. Pep has transformed how

                  Sicario2 - Tier 1 Ok now fault him winning the CL with Inter (the last time an Italian team won the competition).

                  It was an impressive achievement but Mourinho didn't exactly take over a shit Inter side. They had won the league three times on the trot, had an excellent squad but fair play he took them up a level. If that volcano hadn't erupted and Barca team didn't spent something like 15 hours travelling to face them I'm not sure they would have beaten them 3-1 but despite that it was a great performance and Inter were sensational that year.

                        JazzG
                        1) There was no guarantee Wenger’s 2004 team would have beaten Porto. Reason why Wenger never won a European final. He lost to bloody Galatassary (who played in a true farmers league) 4 years before. Wenger never beat Jose for about 12 years post 2004 as well.
                        2) Inter only won the league 3 times on default because of the Italian football scandal of 2006. Juve were relegated ffs! Inter winning the CL in 2010 was the first time they won it since their great side of the 60’s. The famous inter teams of Klinsmann, Breheme of 80s or Ronaldo, Vieri of 90s never won it.

                            Ok, ok we get it. Mourinho is the greatest manager that ever lived and we're all just haters.

                            /s

                            Edit: actually I am a hater. Unashamedly so.

                            • IBL likes this.

                            Mourinho is a tremendous manager. As is Pep. Rich teams attract and hoard the best talent, including managers and technical staff. I think it’s helpful to acknowledge this in these debates.

                            So Mourinho has done well to win his CLs and leagues. But he did spend several years working at the club that ruined modern football by completely warping the financial model, opening the way for City and PSG.

                            QuincyAbeyie
                            There is a difference between gamesmanship and cheating. Plus if Saka dived for a pen and got it that would be cheating but we would all cheer it on.

                            It’s kill or be killed if you want to win big honours

                              Football is about the experience. To be fair, I don’t doubt that the Chelsea fans or the Inter fans didn’t love that experience, but I’d chose out footballing the opposition every day of the week.

                              And it’s hard to believe any Arsenal fan who’s experienced the wilderness and lows like we have over the years would choose to experience that again just to guarantee a single trophy.

                                I am not going to be a hypocrite. If we won the UCL due to Eboue diving, I really don't give a fuck. What matters is we won. If we won because Suarez used his hands to clear the ball away on the goal line, or Materazzi triggering Zidane to be sent off, I don't care as well. Gamesmanship is always part and parcel of all sports. I doubt Max Verstappen cares how he won his championships.

                                Of course the real kind of cheating like bribing referee or falsifying accounts is a different story.

                                goon mate we haven’t won the title for 20 years and CL never, couldn’t t care less about the ‘football experience’.

                                For me football is about winning otherwise what’s the point? Playing nice football is a ‘nice to have’.

                                The high of winning a big trophy would eclipse being the best footballing team but winning nothing.

                                Also, playing nice football gives you ZERO ammunition against rival fans if it doesn’t result in silverware.

                                    Sicario2 - Tier 1 Also, playing nice football gives you ZERO ammunition against rival fans if it doesn’t result in silverware.

                                    The importance of this for you is what I've always wondered about you. Who really gives a shit. We're not in school anymore. Who are these rival fans constantly giving you, not online or at the players or manager, but giving you shit about us? I don't know a single City fan, and the rest have all been differing shades of shit over the last however many years so can't really say anything.

                                        I mean I have time for rival fans who genuinely want to talk about football. The ones who talk about the teams in the here and now, how they were developed, the way the club is run, the different styles, potential for success, what we or they would need to improve and what we/they have over other rivals. That I don't mind. But engaging with those talksport robots, you know the types who talk about "oooh you've never won a CL" despite winning nothing themselves the last decade. Yeah I'm not bothered to even respond to those.